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I recently had an opportunity to listen to Alex Perriello (President and CEO, Realogy Franchise Group) address a group of brokers and agents. While spirits of the crowd seemed high, you could sense an undertone of concern as Alex was asked to give his advice to the group on how to weather this challenging market.
You could see the crowd sit a little straighter and lean forward in their chairs as Alex began to address the question. Here’s my summary of his advice.
You might think I am going to write about great technology applications as they relate to “the real estate brand of the future,” and I will… but not in this post. Technology will continue to empower both the consumer and agent by allowing for more transparency and greater efficiencies, and the tools will continue to become more sophisticated in the months and years to come. All of this excites me, but without the right people (as in team) in place, it all falls flat.
One of the most exciting things for me about building BH&G Real Estate from scratch is having the opportunity to put a best-in-industry team in place - believe me, there is nothing more powerful. And if early feedback is any indication, we are off to an outstanding start! One of the key prerequisites to be considered for the team is a keen passion and desire to build a service offering from scratch that embodies the needs of broker owners, agents and consumers, that takes the best of what we have today and marries it with what the future should look like. It is one of those funny things… you either get it or you don’t.
As the news about the unprecedented fraud conducted by Jérôme Kerviel at Société Générale continues to unfold before our eyes, it’s easy to chalk this up as perhaps interesting reading but something irrelevant to most of us. But the unfortunate truth is fraud is happening every day, to companies of all sizes, and in every industry.
The 2006 Report to the Nation on Occupational Fraud and Abuse is a sobering read. In it, the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) has compiled data from over 1,000 fraud cases covering every imaginable company. From it, I thought the following figures were particularly relevant to our industry: Read the rest of this entry »
You can’t imagine how many people I have spoken with since the October 8th announcement that Realogy was re-launching the Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Brand. Some of the people I spoke with had something to sell or license, some of them were looking for employment opportunities, some wanted to join as franchisees or agents, some wanted to offer advice as to how to launch the brand, and some were just genuinely curious as to how you decide what a brand is going to look like when you literally have a “clean slate.” The last group is why we named our blog “Clean Slate.”
There are a lot of people out there with a lot of opinions… and that is something I am personally grateful for. You see, we decided up front that we would talk to as many people as we could, and entertain all of their products, services, ideas and opinions. You never know when a good “out of the box” idea will be the end result of a conversation or presentation. We are also doing a lot of research into the habits of home buyers and sellers, the consumers who will actually be using a lot of the tools and services we develop. Reports such as the NAR “Profiles of Home Buyers and Sellers” are very helpful in confirming demographic information and statistical information around buyer and seller preferences.
Prior to joining the BH&G RE team, I spent my entire career at Realogy being a part of, and eventually running, the company’s M&A group. I had the privilege of meeting some of the industry’s best minds and getting a chance to study how they built great companies. Every deal I worked on was an invitation to learn something new that could be applied elsewhere.
Over the past decade, I reviewed thousands of companies across the globe (I’m not kidding, we talked to companies on five continents). I discovered early and often that, despite what some people may want to believe, this is a very difficult business; even the best companies barely exceed a 10% return.
As we observe Black History Month, a fundamental question comes to my mind about the continued underrepresentation of African Americans in our industry ranks. According to the 2007 National Association of REALTORS® Members Profile (a survey of nearly 11,000 members), African Americans represent only 4% of all REALTORS®. This is less than 1/3 that of the general population in the U.S. (Census, 2000).
There are positive signs: for example, the percentage of African Americans in the industry nearly doubles when looking at the younger generation (under 39). And it cannot go unmentioned that NAR has attracted a diverse group to its leadership, including a President-Elect (chosen by its 1.3 million REALTORS®) who is African American.
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Camilla Sullivan |
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Robert Albanese |
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